


The Last Page

by szm



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Episode Related, F/M, Gen, Reaction, the angels of manhattan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-29
Updated: 2012-09-29
Packaged: 2017-11-15 07:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/524668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/szm/pseuds/szm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SPOILERS FOR ANGELS OF MANHATTAN</p>
<p>Possibly what happens next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Page

River found him again on Tepess. A planet where nothing had ever happened, ever. No invasions, plagues, or even general everyday mayhem. The Doctor had always threatened/promised to bring Rory here one day. Had always intended too, but can’t now. He was sat on a grassy slope, curled in on himself. Barely moving.

“He would have hated it here,” said River as she sat next to him stretching her legs out on the cool grass and leaning back on her hands. “He would have pretended to love it, but actually have hated it and been counting down the minutes until you and Mother dragged him away.”

The Doctor didn’t look over at her just stared out into the surrounding calm. They sat like that for long moments, a rarity for either of them to be quiet for so long. “You gave Amy the book?” he asked eventually. His voice rough and soft at the same time, pain and comfort both.

“Yes,” replied River. “It wasn’t easy to get through, even with the vortex manipulator. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it again.”

The Doctor doesn’t ask how Rory and Amy were. So River doesn’t answer. Both of them lost for a while. Both glad beyond words for the other.

Suddenly the Doctor _moves_ , up on his feet holding out a hand to pull River up, she ignores it and stands on her own. “We need to go somewhere. One last thing to do for the Ponds!”

With that he’s gone in a blur of energy. River follows, because what else is she ever going to do?

**

He’s manic at the Tardis console, more than usual. But she indulges him, like she always does. River can feel the change in her, the care she dotes on her Doctor. She wonders briefly how many times this has happened, how many times the Tardis has silently soothed him after a companion is gone. She thinks ‘thank you’ as loudly as she can. The feeling she gets back is something she always assumes is the Tardis smiling. Suddenly she misses her Mother more than she ever has before, like a sharp and terrible pain in her chest.

The Tardis stops with the usual terrible grinding of the breaks that always puts Rivers teeth on edge. The movement drained out of the Doctor. Suddenly it was easy to believe this man was over a thousand years old, and it hurt River to see it. He walked out of the Tardis towards her parents’ house and the man sat on the front door step. He was curled in on himself in an unconscious echo of the way the Doctor had been sat on Tepess. River for the first time in her life has nothing to say, her mouth felt dry. She knew Brian Williams from growing up as Mels, but only has a removed figure. He hadn’t been funny like Amy’s dad, or knowing like Amy’s mother. He’d just been _there_. Solid and reliable. Always where you’d left him. 

He looked up at the Doctor with red rimmed eyes. The Doctor faltered in his last step. Possibly unsure whether to run away or come closer. “You lost them,” said Brian his tone and expression flat.

“I’m so… sorry. Brian I… I’m sorry,” replied the Doctor. He went from older than time to a lost little boy so _fast_. River could feel all the tears she hadn’t cried yet pushing against her eyes. This was so wrong, that Amy and Rory could be taken from people who loved them so much. 

Brian had a piece of paper in his hand. “Not your fault,” said Brian ignoring the Doctor vicious head shake and standing. “Rory wrote me a letter from 1938, he told me what they did. What they _chose_ to do. Together.” He smiled at the Doctor. “It was always the two of them you know. Right from when they were kids.” He laughed and shook his head sadly. “Them and that funny little Mels girl, I wonder whatever happened to her?”

The Doctor smiled in return. “Ah, there I think I can help…”

River stepped forward. “Hello Granddad.”

**

The Doctor left, but River stayed with Brian for a few days. It was, after all, a long story that took a lot of telling. Brian offered the letter to the Doctor to read but the Doctor refused.

“I never read the last page of the story, Brian. Then it never has to end.”


End file.
